专利制度与中药资源保护的衔接分析

Analysis of connection between patent system and protection of traditional Chinese medicine resources

中药是我国宝贵的民族财富,中药资源具有相当的商业开发和利用价值,具有转换为商业利益的潜力,可以成为开发某种新药的材料或者给予开发某种新药以技术启示。一些发达国家依靠专利制度,利用我国的中药资源获得可供专利保护的客体,我们却承担着由此带来的代价。2008年新修订的《专利法》中增加了对利用遗传资源完成的发明创造申请专利的相关规定,但目前我国《专利法》中无法对上述情形进行相应的规制。本文对专利制度与我国中药资源保护如何衔接进行了探讨,从专利制度的视野对中药资源的保护提出了相应的对策和建议。

Traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） is the treasure of China nation. Under the new historical conditions, TCM meets with unprecedented opportunities and challenges in a new situation of global economy, es- pecially legal protection of intellectual property of TCM after China joined WTO. As knowing the handicap of R＆D of new drugs, more and more scientists began to focus on natural medicine. Consequently TCM gets more attention than ever. Based on advanced technology, some developed countries extract active ingredients or compounds from the traditional medicines or medicinal animals and plants coming from China to apply for patents. Amended patent law issued in 2008 added the paragraph in Article 5, ＂No patent right shall be granted for any invention-creation where acquisition or use of the genetic resources, on which the development of the invention-creation relies, is not consistent with the provisions of the laws or administrative regulations＂. However, there are no provisions in this Law on invention-creation which relies on resources of TCM, because genetic resources are essentially different from TCM resources. This paper discusses how to protect TCM resources in the patent law indirectly, and gives sugges- tion as well.